I think Dumbledore

[Nightcrawler]

Besides, the "polyjuice potion plot twist" has already been used, and it would be very stale of JKR to use it again.

[HogwartsHQ]

Yeah

[post_baseball89]

oh well just a theory

i cant find the page right now, but it was when he was alone w/DD
probably after,before, or during a lesson possibly on the way to the cave

later

[Asphodel]

Dumbledore mentions in the sixth book when they are in the cave something like, "Death and darkness are not the worst things Harry, but Voldemort secretly fears both,"

Anyway, on the FDD theory, J.K.R would have dropped hints. She might have said that Dumbledore took a swig from a flask before heading out with Harry.

[HogwartsHQ]

Why did the old DD have to have a heart attack.

Umbigde, i would hurt, mean old hag.

[Pansy Parkinson]

>.< Polyjuice Potion?

I don't think he's coming back.... not that I don't want him to, cuz I do... its just that he's obviously dead. Even if he didn't get hit with the curse- he fell from the astronomy tower. I'd say that would hurt pretty bad. The only thing I could think of is that you don't see his body at his funeral... So I can hope!! Haha

[HogwartsHQ]

Think that DD needed to by more careful.

[selene]

i think that's quite obvious, hq

you can prepare for death all you want, you still don't know when it's gonna happen

i don't think he's alive and i'm not gonna hope for it

but he's still alive in fanfic unless you're a writer like me and you killed him a couple of times

[HogwartsHQ]

unless you're a writer like me and you killed a couple of times [/quote]

what?

[selene]

well ... sometimes ... it's necessary to ... euh ... eliminate a character to get your story going in the right direction

and i have the annoying habit of ending up with a rather dramatic story, so

[HogwartsHQ]

I tinned to make my favorite empire win alot, or just to human.

[Asphodel]

I think that J.K.R is opening the field for Harry to die. Perhaps he survived the past books because DD was always watching over him.

[b.scheller]

The main problem I would have, if Dumbledore was still alive at the end of the day, would be the similarity to Gandalf. After all Gandalf fell in the mines to his death and arose as a more "devine" wizard.

[Chimera]

I'm glad someone raised the Gandalf thing. LOTR being arguably the gold standard in fantasy writing it's very hard not to draw parallels. I don't reckon DD survived the curse, and even if he did he couldn't survive the fall. It had to be over a hundred feet, and would "put a dint in your hat that even a wizard would find hard to manage".

[b.scheller]

Well, it would certainly be an interesting twist to the story. If let's say we found out later on, that Dumbledore had already been on a health decline, after the destruction of the ring, that the potion he drank; just accelerated a death that was already on the horizon.

Potential possibility...Anyway, there has been no mention of different levels of wizard seniority. So Dumbledore wouldn't come back as a White Wizard.